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Money no object? Then I’ll have a £30,000 Renault hot hatchback

On a challenging road, a good hot hatchback will be able to cover ground more quickly - and more entertainingly - than a six-figure supercar. It is also rather more affordable

Ed Wiseman

12 September 2018 • 6:28 AM

It’s fun to talk about cars. Of dream garages and money-no-object desires, supercar wishlists and fantasy fleets. I’d estimate that around half of all such conversations occur between people who will never have the means to buy a supercar brand new, but that’s half the point. Motoring types will happily enthuse about cars they’ve not seen, let alone sat in, let alone driven.

But there’s special patch of the automotive world where that distinction is less obvious. You can buy a particular sort of car that has the same speed, dynamics and sense of “desirability” as a six-figure supercar, but you can do it on a normal working salary. This car is called the hot hatch, an underrated type of performance machine, and a proud European tradition.

As with nearly all cars, hot hatches have become better and more powerful over the past few decades. An early example of the breed might have had about 100bhp to drive the front wheels with, but a modern one (some people call them “hyper hatches”, but that’s a phrase I’ve never been comfortable to say aloud) is expected to have at least three times as much power and twice as many driven wheels.

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It’s fun to talk about cars. Of dream garages and money-no-object desires, supercar wishlists and fantasy fleets. I’d estimate that around half of all such conversations occur between people who will never have the means to buy a supercar brand new, but that’s half the point. Motoring types will happily enthuse about cars they’ve not seen, let alone sat in, let alone driven.

But there’s special patch of the automotive world where that distinction is less obvious. You can buy a particular sort of car that has the same speed, dynamics and sense of “desirability” as a six-figure supercar, but you can do it on a normal working salary. This car is called the hot hatch, an underrated type of performance machine, and a proud European tradition.

As with nearly all cars, hot hatches have become better and more powerful over the past few decades. An early example of the breed might have had about 100bhp to drive the front wheels with, but a modern one (some people call them “hyper hatches”, but that’s a phrase I’ve never been comfortable to say aloud) is expected to have at least three times as much power and twice as many driven wheels.

The archetypal current-generation hot hatch is arguably the Ford Focus RS, which has a 345bhp, 2.3-litre engine and a superb all-wheel drive system. It’ll reach 60mph in 4.7 seconds and will keep accelerating until it reaches 165mph. But it’ll do all of this without compromising on the fundamental usability of the regular Focus which, after all, is what justifies a £30,000 purchase in the first place.

In a sense, the hot hatch mirrors the North American muscle car. Both are extremely cool, endlessly tunable and theoretically cheap enough for the working man or woman to buy. Of course, Europe has more corners than America [subs: please check] and as a result our blue-collar heroes tend to have a bit more alacrity than your honest-baked Mustang, but the principles are the same.

The Renault Megane RS isn’t the fastest or the loudest - unless you count that orange hue - but everyone has a hot hatch allegiance and the French car tugs at Ed's heart (and purse) strings

Most people five paragraphs into a column about hot hatches will have a preferred make and model. Whether this is a casual interest or an entrenched, passionate longing borne from forgotten playground arguments is immaterial. Cars are often bought with heart rather than head, and hot hatches are fantastic examples of this. Why would you buy a Cupra over a Ford, or a Peugeot over a Mini? Because you want to. Personal preference. Whimsy.

The Renault Megane RS isn’t the fastest hot hatch on the market. It’s not the loudest, or quickest to 60mph. It’s not the anythingest, really, unless you count the colour of this one. But for reasons that aren’t clear, it is my absolute favourite, even compared to its truly great hot hatch rivals.

Take the Hyundai i30 N for example. Love it. The aforementioned Focus RS, too - a very serious car. On paper, the Volkswagen Golf R is even better. And the peerless Honda Civic Type R, which is probably the best-handling front-wheel-drive car on the market, I like that too. But few performance cars have made me as happy as the Megane RS did this week.

I agree with our Motoring Correspondent Andrew English’s review of the Renault. I’ll admit that I haven’t driven it on a circuit as Andrew has, neither have I taken it for a spirited blast through the Andalusian hills as he presumably did when it was launched near Seville. But I’ve driven it as hard as it’s possible to do so in England, and from where I’m sitting it’s the very best car for that particular job.

So yes, I’ll continue to fill my dream garage in quiet moments at the office. And yes, my dream garage contains several cars worth more than my flat, as well as a handful that I know for a fact are too small for me to physically sit inside. But there are some which, one day, I probably will own, and this strange orange thing is one of them.

I’ve driven a lot of fast cars, and the Renault Megane RS is one of the few I really, really want to buy.